Line Breaks

CRAFT TERM

Nov 7

Written By The Poetry Lab

A line break is a poetic device that is used at the end of a line, and the beginning of the next line in a poem.

via literarydevices.net

Example

excerpt from “My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work” by Tiana Clark:

always popping there,
always my thoughts thump,
thump. I snooze — wake & go
boom. All day, like this I short
my breath. I scroll & scroll.

Prompt

Free write for 5 minutes, putting pen to paper, not stopping to edit or cross out anything. Take that block of writing and revise it into a poem experimenting with line breaks as you go. Try using very short lines. Try using very long lines. Read each version of the poem aloud and take note of the differences.

Resource written by:

Featured

Kris Kaila

is a Queer Punjabi Canadian poet, writer, book reviewer & blogger. Her poetry & nonfiction has been published in The Poetry Lab Resource Center, Harness Magazine, Usawa Literary Review, Salt & Citrus, in three anthologies by Beyond the Veil Press and in a forthcoming anthology by Read or Green Books. Kris volunteers with The Poetry Lab, Beyond the Veil Press and Crow Collective. You can find her on IG @krisesque_life and @my_novelesque_life (bookstagram). Kris uses she/her pronouns.

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